Cousins, Sleep Overs, and Crazy Fun!!

Last weekend we did some traveling and enjoyed seeing and meeting family, several of them for the first time. First we went to Ellerbe and had fun with family there. We had a big spend the night party with Stephen's brothers, their wives and children. It was a long, crazy, and fun night!! We were tired for church the next day, but it was all worth it.

The breakfast table with my Rhyne counsins


My cousin who is 2 weeks younger than me... we met for the first time this weekend! It was FUN!


Then we traveled to Charlotte to see my sister and her family and had a great time with them. Sadie Mac and her cousin C had a great time and spent the night together doing a fun girl slumber party!! She even got to borrow her Dora pj's!! What a treat!! We loved spending time with them and playing with lots of fun and new toys!!


This is my aunt Heather with my cousin C and cousin K... what a blast!

Visiting the NC Zoo!!

Last week we went to visit the NC Zoo with Grandmommie and Poppie and had a great time! Lots of animals that Sadie has seen and several she had not... like the polar bear! We were tired by the end of the day but had a great time. Thankful for the clouds overhead... we are enjoying all the sights and adventures we can while we are here! Grandmommie and Poppie love going on adventures with us and we're just thankful for all the time we're getting together.

Ta'DA... hatched!

DORA!!!

Loving on Grandmommie

Me, Mom, and the Giant Grasshopper!

Polar Bears and signs

... and me and Poppie looking at the polar bears, ignoring the signs

Visitors to the Mountains

We were so thankful to have Stephen's parents come to visit us here in Boone! We had a great time enjoying the sights and shopping at Mast General Store. Saturday the weather was messy, but Sunday was sunny enough for fun outdoor adventures. They absolutely LOVE spoiling Sadie Mac and she doesn't seem to mind it too much either. We are so thankful for this season to be around grandparents!! Loving it!!

Me and my Poppie

Little Miss Movie Star and her body guard?!?

Rules... who needs them?!? No chain is going to stop me from where I want to go!

Grandmommie teaching me to play checkers

Beating Poppie at checkers

Sheriff Sadie at Mast General Store

Our First Week back...

Our first week in America has been a good one and we've enjoyed lots of things we've missed the past three years! Sadie Mac has enjoyed her first tastes of Chic Fil A, Taco Bell, Bojangles. She's also seen more green grass, Ford trucks, and American football than she ever has. Needless to say, we're enjoying ourselves and being "home" for a short break. We'll live it up while we have it and while we can!

Enjoying our house in the middle of a cow field... "mooo!!!"

Me and Daddy and the cows

Sadie Mac's first tastes of Chic Fil A... she was a fan!!!

Playing at the Chic Fil A play place with NanNan

Playing in the creek with my NanNan

NanNan stocked our fridge and pantry with lots of good treats (we forgot to put bacon in the picture!)

Playing with lots of new toys from my cousins!

Our new home...

This is our new home here in the good 'ol US of A!!! We feel so blessed and thankful for the beauty of where we live. This is where I (Amanda) was born and raised and we're only 2.5 miles from my mom! She was amazing as she found the house, cleaned and scrubbed and prepared it for us to be here for the next 6 months! She had the help of my sister, nieces and nephews and we are thankful for them all!
The yard, as you can see, is amazing and we are surrounded by the green we've missed for the past 3 years! We have a nice long drive way and a creek that runs just in front of the house. We bought Sadie Mac a swing the second day we were here so she could enjoy it before it gets too cold! We are in the middle of a cow pasture and enjoyed several cows for a few days, but then they moved them... or sent them to the "happy hunting ground".
Well, it's been a good adjustment and we're happy and thankful to be back around all the GREEN!!! Hope you enjoy the pics and thanks for coming along for the journey!

The view past our yard... the view is much different here than in the sandbox! We will enjoy the green while we can!

Enjoying the view of the creek!

Daddy hanging my new swing in our yard!

"Weeee!!!"

Arriving back in the US

After three different plane rides we finally arrived and had a wonderful crowd that met us at the Charlotte airport! Family and friends came and we felt so loved and welcomed. It was such a treat to be back. Sadie Mac did good on the plane rides, but several times she asked to go "out" and get off the plane. Signs, balloons and wonderful people with lots of hugs and tears! It sure is good to be back!

This sign was in Atlanta and we just laughed at the sign... we felt thankful to be reminded we are...


Arrival into Charlotte!!!!

Sadie meeting some of her cousins for the first time!

Date Night!

Stephen and I have wonderful friends here who offered to watch Sadie Mac so we could go out and enjoy time together. We were thrilled that we could have date night and Sadie could have Play Date Night! We had a wonderful dinner together and had a few hours out on the town and Miss Sadie Mac had some fun of her own... playing with her friend Ben. The two are quite funny together. Turns out that Sadie wasn't sure what to call Ben's mom, so she started calling her mom too! (I thought how quickly I could be replaced!! haha!) But, regardless... she had a great time with Ben and his family and we had a great time enjoying the time together! Thanks again to our friends who watched her!!! We love you guys!



Apparently, she was Queen of the Castle!

Summertime Fun

Summertime here means HEAT. Therefore, it means finding ways to get and stay COOL! We try to be creative, but it seems the most common themes are water and ice cream (or some variation of it!) We have had a great 3 months here in the sandbox and hope you enjoy seeing what we've been up to!

Making Ice Cream with Dad is one of Sadie Mac's favorite things!!

Mom makes pudding ice pops and Sadie Mac LOVES those too!! Often we combine pool time and ice pop time. I'm thankful she is a good "sharer" and here she is starting to offer by saying... you want "some"... "some"...


Pool Parties with friends are always FUN!!

I'll even help with the dishes if mom will do crazy stuff with my hair and I can play in the water!

A Happy 2nd Birthday Party!

So our little angel had a wonderful 2nd Birthday on July 28th. We can't believe it's been 2 years! How the time flies! We had planned on doing a pool party because we live in the land of sunshine. Sadly, on the day of her party, the rain decided to come! But, I can't complain about rain because it cools things down! So, we decided to have a fun little cook out and celebrate with friends with games! We had water games (because the rain had stopped by the afternoon), we played a different version of pin the tale on the donkey and enjoyed hot dogs and cookies and cream ice cream!!!

Rah, Rah, Rah for ROCKET! Birthday Cake

Playing "Pin the Jet Stream on Rocket"

Eating with my friends...

Thank you for the PRESENTS!!